Carcovers.com (use code THETRACKAHEAD for $15 off per cover $100 or more)
In all the time that I’ve owned a car, I’ve never thought to get a car cover to protect my car. I always thought that using a car cover over time would eventually damage your car because the car cover would constantly move around, rubbing against the car’s paint causing damage to the paint.
It wasn’t until recently where my project car is sitting outside for long periods of time. I don’t always get the amount of free time that I wish, so I’d wash my car and it would immediately get dirty just sitting outside exposed to the elements. I am also located in an area that gets extremely dusty, so I find myself washing the car constantly only to find it covered in dust and debris shortly after.
This is when I realized the reason for using a car cover–to protect your car that is sitting for a long period of time. I still had concerns about the cover damaging the paint over time, but I wondered if it would be okay as long as you washed and decontaminated prior to covering it. If the inside of the car cover was soft enough to not scratch the paint, then fully cleaning and decontaminating the car should make it safe enough to use, right?
Well, I wanted to test this theory out. Carcovers.com sent me one of their car covers to test and review. I received their Platinum Shield Car Cover, which is made to be strong enough to protect the car outside, yet be soft enough on the inside to keep it from scratching the car’s paint.
The Platinum Shield Car Cover is the top-of-the-line cover that they offer, costing $199.95 at the time of this post. You insert your year, make, and model of your vehicle and they provide you with a semi-custom fitted car cover that is supposed to fit to your vehicle. They also offer some free bonus items like a cable-and-lock set, microfiber towels, antenna patch kit, and storage bag.
After taking the car cover out, I wanted to see what the materials felt like on both outside and inside. The exterior of the cover feels like a tough canvas material with a silver reflective surface (think of a thickness like a medium thickness rain jacket). The inside of the cover is made of a soft felt-type of material, so it seems soft enough for my car’s paint (as long as the car is fully cleaned and decontaminated).
It would probably be foolish to think that a car cover wouldn’t introduce micro-scratches into your clear coat or paint if you left it on long enough. If you leave it on long enough, the wind alone will cause the cover to move around enough eventually causing any buildup of dirt coming from beneath the cover, to scratch the paint. But, I’ll keep this cover on and see what happens–it might not be a big issue if it’s not kept on fora very long time.
The cover has a tag stitched onto it for the front, which helps you align it to the front of your car. Then, you unwrap it as you move to the back until it mostly covers your car. This cover is supposed to specifically fit my Audi TT here, which seems to be a very good fit so far.
Carcovers.com also sells these wind clips for about $17, in case you live in a windy climate and are concerned of the cover blowing off of your car. These clips grab on directly to the cover on each side, and you run the bungee cords across the width underneath the vehicle to hold them together. My concern is that the teeth of the clips are fairly sharp and I can see it eventually tearing the cover where it grips onto the cover.
On each side of the cover, there are grommets where you can run your cable to hold the cover down securely. The nice thing about these grommets is that they have a double layer where a cable running through the opening is protected on the inside, to keep it from rubbing/scratching against the vehicle.
The cable provided can be threaded into itself on one end, before going through the grommets on both sides of the car. There is a tiny (and I mean tiny) lock that can be used to lock the cover in place. The lock is pretty small and dinky; so are the keys that come with it. It does work however, so I’m currently using it but it’s not really for security–moreso to hold the cover in place. I guess it could also act as a theft-deterrent.
The thing with universal fit car covers is that they can be loose-fitting. This can be problematic as it can easily be blown off the car. It can also droop down and touch the ground, which allows a path for insects and condensation. This would be bad as it would not allow you the necessary air flow to minimize condensation and mold growth.
The fit on this Platinum Shield Cover from Carcovers.com is pretty good. It’s not a fully-custom car cover, but it’s pretty close at a lower cost (compared to a fully custom car cover.) It fits mostly taut to the car and stops near the bottom side of the car, allowing sufficient air flow underneath. The only part that doesn’t fit perfectly are the side mirrors, but Carcovers.com says that they purposely do not make pockets for the side mirrors anymore. From their experienece, adding these side mirror pockets tend to introduce a weak point in the cover leading to premature failure.
I’ve only gotten the car cover on for about a month now, and so far-so-good. It’s too early to tell how it performs, as I really want to see how it well its lasts. I have seen a lot of bad reviews online for Carcovers.com with a lot of them being related to customer service when returns were requested, as well as with the durability of the covers. I will continue using this car cover for some time, so I will report back with any updates when I inspect the cover again over time.
Carcovers.com (use code THETRACKAHEAD for $15 off per cover $100 or more)
